NO B.S. FRIDAY: How to get results fast (I mean really fast)

There’s a story about a young man who comes to a great Samurai, and asks him to teach him swordcraft.

He asks, “How long will it take you to teach me to be a master swordsman?”

The teacher replies, “With my training, and if you listen, 5 years.”

The student says, “But what if study twice as hard as the other students, do twice as many exercises, twice as often?”

The teacher says, “10 years.”

I think it was probably funnier in the original Japanese, but I think there’s an interesting point here. Some things you just can’t rush. And if you do, it just takes you longer.

In life, I’ve tended to be a bit like this young samurai. When I fix my sights on something I just dive into it. I do read all the books I can get my hands on – do all the courses, listen to all the podcasts.

I go hard.

Sometimes I’ve got 12 open books by the bedside table.

I burn through it all, and then apply the stuff that makes sense. A lot of the real learning happens when I’m knee deep in it, but slowly and surely, I master whatever I’m working on.

But I’ve come to expect that it’s going to be a slow process – or at least slower than I’d like.

Right now, my finances are pretty sorted, so I’m making health the main goal. It’s my focus, and I’d like to lose a few kg’s.

So I’m going to the gym. I’ve dropped down on the carbs. I’m eating more vegetables.

It seems to be working, but things are moving pretty slowly.

I’m thinking, maybe this is just what it’s like getting older. It gets harder to bounce back. I’m not a spring chicken anymore.

But I’m still the same basic organism, so I’m wondering why I’m not getting quicker results.

So now, I’m starting to feel a bit humble. Maybe I actually do need a personal trainer. I need a bit of outside help.

This is a pretty big shift for me. At first I’m like, “I’m Jon Giaan. I’m motivated, I’ve got a can-do attitude. I was a borderline professional athlete. Other people need someone to hold their hand through this stuff, but not me.”

But I bite the bullet, put my ego to the side and track down a personal trainer in my area. I find this guy with cred. He’s a former body-builder. He still competes, and still wins his age group (60+).

That’s my man.

We catch up for a chat, but then he says, I’m going away over Easter. Let’s catch up in two weeks.

Two weeks? Wtf? I’m ready to go now. I’m ready for results.

I tell him I’m keen. Is there any thing I can do over the next couple of weeks to get started?

I almost choke on my kale salad. “Food diary? Yeah sure mate. Here it is here with Hello Kitty on the front and the boys from One Direction on the back.”

“This is Harry. He’s my favourite. We’re going to get married one day.”

Seriously. But I don’t want to be an arrogant prick, and the guy obviously gets results, so I politely ask him to tell me about it and say that I’ll give it a go.

Basically, I’ve just got to keep track of what I eat, with a rough idea of the calories in each meal.

But I’m thinking. “Man, this guy has me figured out all wrong. Food diaries are for losers. I don’t need that.”

As I’m driving away, I’m wondering if I’m even going to bother. But then a light goes on.

I’ve made my millions doing essentially one thing … Want to know what it is?

Recording campaigns. We’re always testing, measuring, improving. Send out a campaign, see what response you get. Improve it and go again.

You idiot Giaan. Just shut up and take his advice.

So I stick to my regular training schedule. The same old 4 or 5 sessions a week.

But I start to record everything I eat.

What happens? Boom. In 7 days I lose 3 kilos!

How did that happen?!?

Well to start, turns out I don’t eat as well as I thought I did. I have too many snacks, and my meals are too big.

That was a revelation.
The other thing is that a diary is like having someone looking over your shoulder all the time. You might be reaching for the chocolate, but then you think, oh oh, if I have that I’ll have to put it in the diary…

It’s a new level of accountability.

So just by watching what I was eating more closely, I ate a lot better and lost weight.

And that was seriously all I did.

So what are the lessons here?

The big one here is don’t be an arrogant shit. If you think you have nothing to learn, there will be nothing to learn. Don’t think you’re different.

Don’t rush. You have to master walking before you can run. Sometimes you’ve got to drop back a few levels and work on things again to really improve your game.

Follow people who have gotten results. I don’t think I would have really listened to this guy if he wasn’t a totally shredded 60-year old. There’s a lot of motivation there, and motivation is gold.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t control it. This is the golden rule of budgeting but turns out its just as true with food.

Don’t stress the precision. I was measuring every calorie with military precision. Most of the value is often just in paying more attention – being more mindful.

But be brutally honest with yourself. It’s tempting to make stuff up – to go a little easy on yourself – but you’re only cheating yourself, as the saying goes.

Just goes to show that even the brilliant success guru Jon Giaan has something to learn. And even he can be an idiot.

This food diary gave me a slap in the face. But I didn’t take it personally and it was just the slap I needed.

Comments

I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and I like these Friday posts, but this one in particular really resonates with me at the moment in both my personal life and career.

I’m building at the moment and it’s been Easter, raining for weeks no progress. My life is pretty much on hold until the build is done and it seems like it’s taking forever. So I like the “don’t rush” part: perhaps even if my wife and I hound the builder it’s not going to make it any quicker, in fact it will probably make it longer if he makes mistakes! We are not experts in building and hence there’s no way for us to measure and control exactly what’s going on here. After all we put our trust in him and signed up with him to complete the job. I’m also trying to pre-sell and focusing on every little precise detail of the colours, inclusions, a 3d render etc. may not make much difference to the sale price, I may miss the bigger picture spending effort on things that don’t add much value.

The more risk, more value, and more effort I put into my next project, just because the dollars are big and there are many units doesn’t mean it’s going to give me as much profit as a couple of smaller developments. By rushing, I feel like I’m trying to “kill the goose that lays the golden eggs”. I could spend double the time and get half the profits if things don’t line up properly. Worse still it could set me back years if it all goes wrong.

In my career at the moment I’m writing some code to test some other complex functionality I’ve completed which had some bugs in the past and no matter how many changes I make I can’t control the situation and call my work complete unless I can measure the outcomes. It’s easy to get lost in every the details, and I do think I have to take a step back, be honest with myself and consider the bigger picture in order to get a better result.

To anybody genuinely searching for health, may I humbly suggest putting aside prejudice (“pre-judging” — before the real facts have been studied in depth) and Google search “Urine Therapy”. Most of us have an immediate sense of revulsion, because in our Western culture we equate urine with feces as being unclean. However, a short while earlier, urine was your blood. If that is unclean, you’ve got problems. Serious ones!!!
The Ayurvedic traditions go back millennia and more recent research by Western medicos has helped cast more light on the benefits.
There are numerous excellent books available; but don’t expect your local GP to endorse UT.
Doctors, like the rest of us are in many ways held to ransom by Big Pharma. Any beneficial process or material which the industry cannot patent is vehemently decried.
If you really want good health, you owe it to yourself and your loved ones to set aside prejudice and at least research the subject.
Personally, I have practiced what the Indians refer to as “Shivambu” for over thirty years, enjoying wonderful health. Twice recently, it overcame severe tooth ache, while waiting for dental appointments – no pharmaceutical painkillers required!!!. All it took was a couple of drops of mid-stream flow under the tongue at each passing.
Health & happiness to you all.

there seems to be a continuing thread through your discourse: stress!! about results. if there is anything that causes imbalance in a person’s life it is stress. so eat up and enjoy your life, maaaan! . in my desultory endeavours to attain ideality(?) i have found in my 11 x 7 + 2 replacements life that eating is a profound and yet enjoyable experience. true! i eat fruit, some veges., meat : steak, fish and chicken and gulp lots lemon and crystal salt drinks as well as chloraphyll powder drink once a day.
i have a perfect ratio of 78kgs/178cms whatever they call it and i have the mind of a ten year old. i drink home made beer and have 2 or 3 coffees every day. plus i give a lot of cheek to any pretty female who comes along. women seem to like to chat to old buggers like me. they think i am harmless lol.
also i am active in that i walk most places that is sensible to so do. otherwise i drive only for efficiency of time management:-) life is a buzz if one takes care of oneself. don’t smoke or take drugs except maybe medical marijuana, as it is now legal to so do in most usa states now and canada. cheers from the west where time seems to stand still. we are called the ‘wait a while’ state. maybe there is some sense there.

i just read your ‘blog’. wow you have all the symptoms of stress, man. step back and look at the project from without , looking in and take the perspective of the builder. put your self in his shoes. if its rain its rain. wait..until it stops. many places are crying out for rain lol. get away from your problem for a while and ‘let it be’. cheers, ron